Umm Kalthoum:The Voice of Egypt, a gift to all Arabs

Singing her praise: "Life in the Arab world came to a stop" when the star sang, of course, but also when she died. On February 3, 1975, millions of Egyptians poured into the streets to express their grief.

As the 30th Cairo International Book Fair opens, Umm Kalthoum fans who never had a chance to listen to the Thursday concerts, broadcast to spellbound listeners all over the Arab world, can glimpse what she meant thanks to Virginia Danielson's new book (University of Chicago Press, 1977).

The "voice of Egypt" is gone, but her songs are still heard: on a purist's CD player, in the rarefied atmosphere of a bourgeois living room, or over the crackle speaker of a rickety taxi radio. Fans can listen intently in cafes dedicated to her memory, or hear a snatch of unforgettable melody drifting out of a carpentry workshop.

Umm Kalthoum is Egypt, of course; but, although her listeners may try to recreate her every day, things will never be quite the same.